The freeBILy consortium held its final annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain, from 19-21 Sept 2022. The main objective of the freeBILy project is to implement and evaluate the effectivity of two well-researched circulating antigen tests to improve diagnosis in endemic field situations and reduce morbidity due to Schistosoma infections in women and young children. The meeting included presentations from partners, focusing on the work that has been conducted in the past years and included preliminary results where possible.
In Gabon (NCT03779347), about 20% of recruited pregnant women had schistosomiasis, based on the ultrasensitive UCP-LF CAA test. This data will now be further analyzed by comparing it to various other diagnostic methods in order to evaluate whether the UCP-LF CAA test is a suitable test for diagnosing schistosomiasis. In a subset of pregnant women, the UCP-LF CAA test is being evaluated as a tool for monitoring treatment efficacy.
In Madagascar (PACTR201905784271304), the end of data collection (last patient, last visit) was celebrated in September 2022. In this trial, more than 5000 pregnant women have been recruited and followed over time in order to investigate the usefulness of controlling intestinal schistosomiasis in pregnant women and their newborns by integrating a POC-CCA Test-Based-Schistosomiasis-Treatment (TBST) in routine maternal-child primary health care. Sub-studies and secondary analysis embedded in the main study in Madagascar were also presented and discussed.
In addition to the two clinical trials, a cost-effectiveness study is being performed mainly focusing on the TBST strategy in Madagascar. This study will complement the trial date from Madagascar and will provide valuable information regarding the cost-effectiveness of such a strategy and its potential for large scale applications.
The meeting was very successful, with many productive discussions about preliminary data as well as future data analysis and dissemination of freeBILy results.
Discussions
Many interactive discussions between freeBILy partners about the the study outcomes as well as future data analysis.
Workshop
Practical workshop from LUMC regarding the data analysis of the UCP-LF CAA test executed in Gabon and Madagascar.
Presentation
Dr Josiane Honkpehedji presenting preliminary study results from Gabon.
Team
freeBILy group picture in front of the faculty of Medicine – University of Barcelona, Spain.
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